20 bucks and a cracker
by tereseh
Summary: The girlduo Jack & Sam are caught redhanded but are bailed out by Vincent Plum. Suddenly Sam disappears and Jack can't find her, Stephanie is supposed to bring them in, but instead she and Jack are trying to find Sam before it's too late. Enjoy.
1. Chapter 1

_All characters in the story are © Janet Evanovich_

_except the duo Jaclyn "Jack" Harris and Samantha "Sam" Simon, they are © me..:) This is my first fanfic, so please tell me how I'm doing. Please?_

Chapter 1: Prologue

Jack

I had removed the coating and was counting the wires silently to myself, trying to figure out which wire to cut first when I heard a small noise behind me. The faint rustle of clothes made me drop the flashlight and swirl around knife in front of me, ready to defence, but it was not necessary. I heard a small gasp then Samantha whispering.

- Whoa! Jack! She held up both hands in front of her. Calm down! I could hear the half smile in her voice, but also the tension. The flashlight lit up both of us so I hit it with my shoe so it rolled away and the light was turned downwards.

- You're supposed to be up front, keeping an eye on the street! I snapped rather unfriendly at her. I could see her flinch at my hard tone, but I ignored it, our success was depending on our sharpness and coordinated movements. Had I cut the wire when she was here I would have set off the alarm and she knew it. She pulled a face at me in the dark.

- I was just wondering Jack, What do we do if we set off the alarm?

I could see that she was extremely nervous so I smiled reassuringly at her.

- Then we run like hell! I whispered. At this she nodded and gave me a weak smile.

- I'll be in place in 15 sec's. She waved with a finger and disappeared into the darkness.

I took the flashlight and turned the beam towards the wires again. I hesitated and listened into the dark night. Not a soul or sound was heard but I still had the nagging feeling something wasn't right. I looked at my watch, 4.38:23; she should be in place soon. I turned my attention towards the wires again and began counting them, suppressing the little voice in my head that at first just had been whispering but, in the last hour, had turned into screaming "This Is MADNESS Get Out Of There!!" I gave myself a mental slap. What was I doing? Come on Jack, get a grip! I continued counting the wires with my knife. I decided which wire to cut first and pulled it out and cut it. The first thought that ran through my head, barely microseconds before the wire snapped was simply "WRONG!" And as the wire snapped the alarm set off.

Shit!

I heard someone screaming and a car door slammed. I heard footsteps running my direction so I got up on my feet and ran away from the house. Two blocks later I cast a glance over my shoulder and saw Samantha running behind me, she was panting hard. We ran together in the dark through several backyards, jumping and climbing fences, stumbling over dark objects. Sam's jacket got stuck in one of the wire fences and she screamed. I stopped immediately and ran back to her and began to rip the jacket from the fence.

- Hey, this's my favourite jacket! She protested, but then we both heard footsteps echoing between the houses and we realized we were being followed. We looked at each other for a second then we rushed off. Soon Sam was behind again. I slowed down a little and hissed to her.

- Faster! Damn it, Sammy, we're gonna get caught if you keep dragging your feet behind!

- Shut up! She replied and ran away from me. I smiled to myself; she really was the best partner in crime. I cast a glance backwards and discovered we were still being followed. I ran up to Sam and suggested we split up.

- Good Idea… she hissed out through clenched teeth and took off to the right. I saw her blonde hair glisten in the distant lamplight before she disappeared into a dark alleyway. I took off to the left towards a park. Before I entered through the gate I suddenly got a glimpse of our follower as he passed under a street light. He was wearing dark jeans and a light blue shirt and on his right hip I could see the unmistakeable shape of a gun.

Shit!

He spotted me at the same time I spotted him and he shouted.

- Stop!

I ignored his command and rushed into the darkness of the park. My steps made the gravel on the path crunch with each step and echoed through the empty park and soon I heard the echo of another pair of footsteps. I abandoned the path and ran across the damp grass. Dark shapes revealed trees lurching and I almost ran straight into one huge tree. I swerved to the left and stumbled away from the tree. Some footsteps behind me I heard the cop almost miss the tree. He staggered and I heard him hit the ground. I tried to suppress a giggle when something hard hit my left knee and I fell over, hitting the ground with a loud thump. I groaned.

- Now you're not laughing! An ironic voice came from under the tree.

- Neither are you! I replied as I turned around to get up, waving my hand to get support from what had tripped me. Shit! No speaking! I told myself. No speaking to the cops! Get up and away from there, now!

My hand hit the thing that had made me fall over and I felt at the shape of it. It was a horse! A bloody horse! I looked around and saw the shapes of a sandbox right in front of me and another horse like figure to my right. Somewhere beyond the sandbox lurched the shape of a slide.

I heard the police moving behind me and jumped quickly up, but sank immediately back down. My knee sent explosions of pain up my leg. I could see twinkling stars in front of me that had nothing to do with the cloud free sky above. I had to bite my lips not to scream out loud. I decided to ignore the pain and tried to stand up. If I didn't put any weight at the knee I was fine. I took some stumbling steps away from the horse and heard the policeman move quickly. I threw myself to the side, but I was too slow. He hit me in the small of my back and we went both down. My knee hit again something hard. The sandbox! Then the twinkling stars disappeared and everything went black.

When I got my consciousness back I held my eyes closed for a while, at least I think they were closed, and listened to the surroundings. There was someone breathing nearby and I had the sinking sensation in my stomach I wouldn't be able to get out of this. I opened my eyes and all I saw was black. I decided to open them again. Nope, no effect, still the same darkness. Then slowly came something floating into my field of sight. A head, and shoulders, then a hand. But it was moving too fast for me to see it. I groaned. Headache. The hand was doing something on my forehead and I felt something trickling down into my hair and I groaned again and mumbled to myself.

- What did you say? The voice from the head said. It sounded as if it was amused.

- Blood… I mumbled again a little louder.

- Yeah, you hit one corner of the sandbox with your head… the head explained. I have called an ambulance; they should be here any minute. As he said that we heard sirens in the distance closing in.

- Great! I muttered under my breath and waved away his hand on my forehead. I took the cloth he had wiped the blood away with and pressed it against my forehead.

- Just great! I sighed and put force behind the words. I could hear the cop suppress a laugh. And you're laughing at me! I barked and sat up ignoring the pain that threatened to crack my skull.

I could see more clearly now, as the sun obviously was coming up. The cop was sitting on the damp sandbox and I had been lying on the cold grass. I looked up at him and was surprised he looked so young. And handsome from what I could see in the dusk. He also looked like someone you wouldn't want to meet alone on a street in the middle of the night. I guessed women were drawn to him like a moth to the flame, he looked slightly dangerous.

Bar fights. I thought, then the ambulance tuned off its sirens as it had arrived to the gates of the park. A police came over with the ER guys and nodded to the police sitting next to me.

- Morning Morelli, I heard you were on the big chase tonight…

- Morning Gazarra. The police next to me said and then yawned. But I still got some more hours before my shift is over. He then looked at me, locking my eyes with his dark eyes, I looked away. The ER guys were examining my head and then asked me if I could stand up.

I shook my head, but quickly stopped since it hurt.

- No. My knee's hurt.

I looked over to the bloody horse. It was a wooden thing that could be wagged back and forth, painted in bright red and blue. The cop named Morelli sniggered.

- The horse threw her off. He explained nodding towards the horse.

- It didn't! It hit my knee! I snapped back.

- You ran right into it! He smiled towards me and I rolled my eyes.

- And that comes from one who ran right into a tree!

He stopped smiling immediately and the other cop named Gazarra sniggered.

- This will be an interesting story to tell the guys at the station. He said and took some steps backwards at the glance Morelli shot at him. The ER guys were ready to lift me up and Morelli stood up too and followed us slightly limping.

- Want a ride to pick up your car? Gazarra asked Morelli who shook his head.

- No, thanks. I'll go with the ambulance and visit Stephanie at the same time.

- Send her greetings from me; we miss her bringing in FTA:s. Gazarra said and disappeared outside the doors of the ambulance. Morelli got in, closed the door and the ambulance drove off. During the ride the ER guys did some random checks on me, asking some questions, if I felt dizzy and so on. When they got to the part where they ask you your name I closed my mouth with a snap and glanced quickly at the cop. He was leaning back hands behind his neck, but when I closed my mouth he bent forward looking at me.

- Ms, we need to know your name.

I ignored him and stared right in front of me.

No talking, that was rule number one. I knew how easy it was to accidentally say too much, so no talking.

When the ambulance jerked to a stop outside the hospital Morelli stood up and with a last glance at me he told the ER guys to tell him when they were done with me, he would be in room 235. And he was gone. I was lifted and put in a wheelchair and pushed in through the doors of the hospital. I didn't like hospitals, they were scary. They really scare me, and with all the disinfection stuff it made me feel quite queasy. Also I had many not so bright memories from earlier hospital visits. All I can say is I don't like hospitals.

I was driven through x-ray and diagnosed with a minor concussion and a knee that needed to rest for three weeks.

I would be walking on crutches.

Great. Really great.

When they were finished with me I was driven off to a room, because they still wanted to keep me over the night, as they always want to. When the nurse pushing my wheelchair pushed me into the room I discovered it was the same room as the policeman Morelli was in.was talking to a woman who laid in one of the beds in the room. He turned around as we entered and the woman in the bed looked up. She looked quite sleepy.

- I hope we are not disturbing. We will keep her over the night just to be sure there's no bleeding in her brain… The nurse nodded to Morelli then pushed me over to the bed next to the occupied bed and helped lay down. Suddenly I discovered how tired I was and when the nurse left I cast a glance towards the couple then closed my eyes and drifted slowly off to sleep hoping Sam would be better off than I was.


	2. Chapter 2

Hi, I'm So Sorry for the long break, but Life came and hit me in the face and I had to deal with it. Anyways, I'm not sure where this is going to lead or if it's going to be good, so please tell me your opinion.:)

_Disclaimer__All characters in the story are © the wonderful author Janet Evanovich, and I'm only doing this for fun not earning any money whatsoever._

The duo Jaclyn "Jack" Harris and Samantha "Sam" Simon, are © me..:)

Here we go:

Chapter 2 At the hospital

Stephanie

Something was pulling me out of my sleep. I could feel the presence of a body close to me but I kept my eyes closed, it was too early. Soft lips gave me a kiss on my forehead and I felt a tingling sensation go through my body. Morelli!

"Morning Cupcake." He whispered as he planted another hot kiss on my lips.

"What time is it?" I moaned and tried to hide under the blanket.

"It's soon six o'clock."

"Six o'clock?!" I opened my eyes and stared at Morelli, who was smiling. I looked around; the blinds were still down in the only window in the room."In the morning?" I yawned at Morelli. "What the heck are you doing here six in the morning?"

"Came to see you."

"Liar."

"We had a bust this night."

At this I felt my body turn alert, had he been out chasing The Gang without telling me? He seemed to know what went on in my head and took my hand in his both.

"No, I was not chasing The Gang that shot you, we had a pair of girls trying breaking and entering, but they weren't successful. One of them is downstairs being x-rayed."

His dark eyes caught my blue and we looked into each others eyes for a minute, both knowing what the other wanted to say. I had been hunting a skip when I suddenly was shot. Next thing I remember is Rangers dark face and Morellis worried face above me as I was rolled into the ambulance. I had been lucky I was wearing a Kevlar, I was told at the ER, but still one bullet had penetrated and punctured my lung. I thought of the letters that had been sent to me suggesting I go somewhere abroad in a rather harsh language. I hadn't told Morelli about those letters, in fact, I had gotten so used to threatening letters I didn't even get scared anymore by getting them.

Now I had quite a huge pile of them stuffed away in a drawer in the kitchen. I looked at Morelli and wondered whether I should tell him about them or just simply ignore them. Considering I had been shot at, maybe someone of my fans had really carried out one of the threats they had mentioned in one of the letters. But then again I had a huge fan-club.

"Cupcake, I really don't like the look on your face." Morelli sighed and leaned closer. "What is it you haven't told me?"

"Umm, nothing, it's just lately I've …" I hesitated then thought what the hell, why not tell him. "Lately I have received letters that didn't come from the postman, if you know what I mean?"

Morelli groaned and hid his face in one hand.

"Tell me it's a joke."

When I didn't reply he lowered his hand and looked at me.

"Of what… nature have these… letters been?" He looked strained and he fought to keep his voice calm.

"Umm…" I said and tried to look like I really thought of the nature of the letters. "Mostly suggestions to have vacation somewhere down south… where it's hot." I added and tried to sound casual. If Morelli thought I was in danger he would team up with Batman and lock me away until it was safe. And that wasn't going to be a nice experience, not for anyone involved. Morelli sighed and looked at me.

"Do you still have the letters?"

I nodded and Morelli closed his eyes and took some deep breaths.

"And when were you going to tell me someone's threatening you?" I wasn't going to tell him I had several 'someones' threatening me. "You were almost killed! And I didn't know. If I'd known I'd…" He started ranting.

"I know, that's why I didn't tell you!" I cut off giving him a I'm-not-gonna-be-locked-up look. He sighed again and said something in Italian.

"What?" I almost felt sorry for him. I knew he cared for me, and I felt like an asshole for not telling him about the letters. But I had had other things on my mind, like tasty-cakes and upside-down pineapple cakes and the button in my jeans worried me more than some letters, I told myself. Yeah, right, it was because of the letters I had to worry about not fitting in my jeans the following morning.

"Where do you have the letters?" He sounded like the air went out of him and I suddenly saw how worn out he looked and I really felt like an asshole.

"They are in a drawer in the kitchen." I said and pulled him towards me and gave him a hug. As we pulled away there was a movement in the door and a nurse showed up with a redhaired girl sitting in a wheelchair with a bandage around her red curls.

"I hope we are not disturbing. We will keep her over the day, probably the night too just to be sure there's no bleeding in her brain." The nurse said and nodded recognizing to Morelli. She helped the girl to bed and with a yawn and a glance in our direction the girl fell asleep. Morelli said he need to talk to the doctor and told me to keep an eye on her and with a kiss that promised more than a good nights sleep when I was discharged, he was gone. I looked over to my new neighbour and suspected she was the one he had said was downstairs being x-rayed. She had a white bandage around her head which made her red hair glow even more and under the cover she had a slightly oversized left knee. I figured out she must have more bandage there too and wondered how she had gotten them. I drifted slowly off to sleep since breakfast wasn't served in another two hours and my room mate wasn't very talkative in her sleeping state.

Suddenly I was startled awake by a nurse bringing the breakfast.

"Oh, sorry if I scared you, dear." She put the tray with breakfast on the bedside table and went over to the girl in the other bed. She was sitting up rather sleepily with her red hair in a big mess around her pale face, and the nurse put the other tray on her bedside table and swung it over so it was convenient for the girl to eat.

"Tea or coffee?" The nurse asked.

"Coffee please." I hid a yawn behind my hand and sat up as the aroma of the coffee filled the room. This I could get used to, almost, the breakfast on the bed thing had its advantages, but I still didn't like hospitals. They give me the creeps. And the food isn't so great I'd want to stay. The nurse pulled the table in front of me.

"Thanks!" I said and took a deep breath of the coffee aroma. Mmmm.

The girl stared at me like I was some kind of freak then the nurse asked her whether she wanted coffee or tea.

"What kind of tea is it?" She pushed her wild mane of hair away from her face and tucked it in under the bandage with a frown. Obviously her hair was something she was going to deal with later.

The nurse looked taken aback. "I don't actually know, I think it's just normal tea…"

"Black or green?" The girl asked a little surly.

"Oh, I think it is more amber…"

At this the girl smiled. "Oh, it doesn't matter I'll have tea, please." She was served tea and the nurse disappeared. She looked disbelievingly at her plate.

"No fruits." I was sipping my coffee and eating a bagel when she turned in my direction. "No fruits? How do you survive?" She looked sickened as I shoved the last piece of the bagel into my mouth.

"What?" I asked.

"Nothing." She mumbled and turned to her plate. She sipped the tea and took a bite of her own bagel. "Breakfast". She stated and took another bite of the bagel.

"Hey, it's not that bad!" I defended the coffee and bagel breakfast. At this she gave me an unbelieving glance.

"Yeah, at least it is not doughnuts" She sighed and took another bite of the bagel. I stared at her. A person would be mentally damaged not to want doughnuts for breakfast! Okay, I know it's not that normal eating doughnuts for breakfast, but hey, at least bagels were classed as breakfast food, right? And doughnuts and bagels were closely related, right? I emptied my cup of coffee but felt the caffeine level wasn't high enough to get me through the day. I sighed and heaved myself out of bed, avoiding moving my right side as much as possible. The wound had healed well, but it still was a pain in the rear to move.

"Hey, what's up?" The girl sat bolt up in bed as I stood up.

"I need more coffee." I explained and waved with the empty cup.

"Coffee's not good for your body. No, I meant with your right side, why are you here?"

I stared at her for a short minute. I wasn't sure I liked her, and she sounded an awful lot like Ranger with that fruit and tea thing. Next she probably would go nuts over not being able to run because of her knee.

"I was shot, punctured lung" I replied shortly and turned to leave.

"Oh!" Was all she said. I heard her moving as I left the room. I was halfway down the corridor when she caught up with me steering the wheelchair with experienced movements. Her knee was in bandage and she had pulled up the hospital trousers to the bandage. Examining the knee she made a grimace when she touched it. It obviously hurt. She looked up at me when she sensed I was looking at her.

"I need to get some fruit." She explained simply and hit the elevator button. I considered taking the stairs, but I didn't want to be rude so I smiled friendly at her.

"So… Why are you here?"

She looked at me as the doors pinged open and she rolled into the elevator. "I thought your cop boyfriend told you." I followed shaking my head.

"He only told me you were breaking and entering but failed..." I pushed the button to the cafeteria and turned towards her. "…not how you got hurt."

She looked at her bandaged knee, prodded it and sighed. "I tripped on a horse in the playground of a park, then your cop boyfriend tackled me and gave me this." She pointed one finger at her head. "And a minor concussion."

"Why were you trying breaking and entering?" I asked but realized immediately I had gone too far, her face darkened.

"We weren't TRYING, we WERE breaking and entering, It's just the alarm set off before we could get to the entering part." She snarled then shut her mouth with a snap and stared right in front of her. Thank god the elevator doors opened right then. I scurried off to buy my coffee and was heading back when I was stopped by the girl. I had to force myself not to sigh and put on a plastic smile. Hopefully I was going to be discharged today.

"Can I borrow some money?" She asked tilting her head and looking pleading at me. "I promise you'll get them back" I hesitated, was it rude to ignore her? Yes it was, who was I trying to fool? I had just decided I didn't like her when she reached one hand forward.

"My name is Jaclyn, but I'm called Jack."

I took her hand and shook it. "Stephanie"

"I'll surely see you again since your cop boyfriend arrested me. You'll get the money back, no worries." She smiled. "I just want some fruit for breakfast." And with a look at the cafeteria she added. "And maybe chocolate-bars."

This got my attention. She would not eat bagels and doughnuts for breakfast, but chocolate-bars were good? "Chocolate-bars?" I asked dumb founded. She must have heard my perplexity and turned to look at me.

"It's not that I am all into chocolate-bars for breakfast every morning." She explained and smiled again. "Lately my life has been quite messy… and I want chocolate." She added a little unsure. As if she wasn't sure she was allowed to want chocolate. This I could relate to. This was my area of expertise. I nodded.

"Besides, hospitals give me the creeps." She shuddered as if suddenly the room had gone cold. Of course the room was warm and well lit and quite comfortable looking, but I had to agree with her about the creeps. I also got the creeps from hospitals.

"I'll come with you, I maybe want some chocolate bars myself" I admitted and we made our way over to the cafeteria.

With her lap full of oranges, bananas and chocolate-bars she manoeuvred the wheelchair over to the elevator and pushed the button. I followed her, sipping on my coffee as we waited for the elevator to come down.

"Why were you shot at?" She asked as the elevator door binged open.

"I work at a bail bonds office." We stepped into the elevator and she hit the button for floor 2. "I was looking for a FTA when I'm suddenly shot. Next thing I know I'm in the ambulance on my way here."

"FTA?" She asked and opened one of the chocolate-bars. She handed me one and ate the other herself.

"That's what we call a person if he fails to appear in court on scheduled day."

"You're a bounty hunter!" She smiled and opened another bar.

"Yeah, you might call it that." I said and sighed. Everybody seemed to be so overexcited when they hear I'm a bounty hunter. I wasn't. In fact I considered giving up bounty hunting, but I had already been down that lane and two cars had been blown up, one Mama Macaroni and a Cluck-in-a-Bucket restaurant had burned down. I didn't want it to happen again. When we arrived to our room we discovered our absence had been noticed. Carl Costanza was on his phone obviously talking to Morelli.

"It's okay, she just walked into the room." He smiled at me. "Yeah, I'll tell her." He hung up and turned to me.

I groaned.

"No need to tell me…" I sighed and rounded him and jumped carefully up in my bed. "…I know."

Morelli had during the latest days begun to preach to me about always telling someone where I was and where I was going. It was easy when I wasn't allowed to leave the hospital, but I was soon going to be discharged. To my happiness and Morelli's grief. Except I think Bob would be extremely happy. Bob is a huge hairy golden retriever with an eatingdisorder. And he misses me when Morelli misses me in bed. Go figure. To be honest I was slightly scared to return to the life outside. There was the usually maniacs stalking me and I had loads of unpaid bills, the rent for my apartment was already one month late, and my mother wanted me to get married and get kids. I really didn't want to face my life right now.

Costanza had turned to Jack who wheeled her chair around him and into the room.

"I'll have to ask you some questions." He produced a pad and a pen from his pocket and sat down on the visitors chair.

"Go ahead, but I can't guarantee I'll answer them." Jack said and peeled one of the oranges.

"Ok, first we need to know your name."

Jack didn't say anything but when I opened my mouth to tell Costanza what her name was she cut me a look then looked at Costanza.

"Jaclyn Harris." And with that she put a piece of the orange in her mouth.

"Your social security number?" Costanza asked as he wrote.

"Why do you need that?" I interrupted. Costanza looked up at me.

"She hasn't got any ID on her." He turned to Jack who was absentmindedly eating oranges. "We will have to check the information she gives. Now, your social security number, Miss Harris."

Jack gave him an unreadable look then rolled forward and took the pen from him and wrote something in the pad upside down.

"Thank you. We have already interrogated your friend and she told us what you were after, now, we would like to hear your version of…"

Jack cut him off. "My friend? Is she alright?"

"Yes, your friend is alright. She ran straight into a patrolling car and they brought her to the station early this morning."

"Great!" Jack sighed and sank down in the wheelchair. She began to peel the last orange and ignored Costanzas question.

"Miss Harris, we would like you to tell us your version…"

Again she cut him off, without looking up from her orange peeling.

"Because the only version you got is a blank page and an alarm that set off and we were found running from the scene." She put a piece of orange in her mouth and chewed.

Costanza looked slightly taken aback but then recovered.

"Your friend has already told us what you were looking for, we would just want you to…"

"Sammy didn't know why we had to break into that house." She chewed and swallowed. "Hell, not even I'm sure what we were looking for." She put another orange piece in her mouth and shook her head. "I'm not even sure it was the right house." She finished the orange and threw the peelings into the wastebasket.


End file.
